Nixon said he saw the Chinese as potentially “the ablest people in the world.” He cautioned his diplomat that the Chinese were “very subtle,” explaining, “They’re not like the Russians, who of course slobber at flattery and all that sort of thing.”

He instructed Bruce to report to him through back channels, avoiding the State Department and its feared propensity to leak.

“I’m supposed to be the No. 1 Red-baiter in the country,” Nixon said. “I have earned that reputation for what you know very well. Had we just continued the policy of just a silent confrontation and almost non-communication with the PRC (People’s Republic of China), … in the end we would reap a nuclear war. No question.”

On April 30, 1973, Nixon spoke by phone to top aide H.R. Haldeman, who along with aid John Ehrlichman had just been forced to resign by the Watergate scandal. Both would be convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.